Combined expanding wallet and card holder



Nmr. 8, M. WINOKAR 2,135,865

COMBINED EXPANDING WALLET AND CARD HOLDER Filed March 1, 1957 jiW/ZW 1%? 2; fizz Patented Nov. 8, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE OOll/[BINED- EXPANDING WALLET AND CARD HOLDER Application March 1, 1937, Serial No. 128,328

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a filing device in the form of a combined expanding wallet and cardholder intended for filing in a cabinet with the wallet containing certain papers and the cardholder holding a card related tothe papers.

Thus, the device hereof may be used for filing such material as goes to make up the record of a person under the Social Security Act, the wallet being designed to contain payment receipts and the cardholder to hold the card identifying such person.

The filing device hereof is advantageous in that it can be economically fabricated'essentially as a one-piece structure from tough paper, fiexible fiberboard, or equivalent sheet material and 16 can be filed with the cardholder, conveniently accessible as an extension of the wallet closure fiap and, upon opening of such flap, presenting an open front wall or window enabling one to read such data as may appear on the card and thereby dispensing with the need for removing or handling the card. The one-piece structure consists of a properly precut and prescored blank comprising front, back, side, and bottom wallet portions formed up into an expanding wallet whose side and bottom walls contain lines of score permitting the desired free movement of the front and back walls toward and away from each other. The blank additionally comprises a closure flap projecting from the top of the back wallet portion and carrying as a continuation thereof front and back cardholder portions formed up into a cardholder whose front wall is provided with an opening or window through which the card placed in the cardholder is visible when the fiap and cardholder are brought up from their closed position against the front wall of the Wallet. The cardholder is preferably formed with an open end adjacent to the wallet flap and through which a card may be inserted thereinto; and the front cardholder wall preferably includes a fiap projecting through such open end into the cardholder and affording a ledge on which a card inserted into the cardholder may rest.

With the foregoing and other features and objects in view, the device hereof will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein,

50 Figure 1 depicts in plan view a properly precut and prescored blank from which the device hereof as a whole may be formed.

Figure 2 is a front view of the device hereof with the flap and connected cardholder in open 65 or upstanding position.

Figures 3, 4, and 5 are sections on the lines 33, 4-4, and 5-5, respectively, of Figure 2.

Figure 6 shows an upper side wall of the wallet portion of the device hereof as one looks at the right side of the device of Figure 2.

The fiat blank appearing in Figure 1 may be made of suitable strong paper, flexible fiberboard, or equivalent sheet material customarily used for so-called filing wallets or envelopes. The blank is precut and prescored so as to afford front, back, side, and bottom wallet portions l0, 10 ll, I2, and 13, respectively. The front portion I0 is shown provided with marginal portions lOa for overlapping adhesive securement to the side portions 12, which constitute extensions of the back portion I I. The bottom portion I3 is shown 1. provided with end tabs I3a adapted to be bent upwardly in overlapping adhesive securement to the side walls formed up from the portions [2 and Illa. The boundaries of the portions l2, the tabs 13a, and the portions Illa, may be deter- 20 mined by continuous lines of score a-a; and the outer edges of the portions l2 and l3a may be in substantial alignment, whereas the outer edges of the portions Illa may be in line with the vertical medial lines of the portions l2. The 25 portions l2 are shown scored at their vertical medial lines b-b and provided at their upper end portions with tabs I2a for bending over into adhesive securement to the portions ma. The bottom portion 13 is also shown scored at its 30 lines of juncture x-x and yy with the back II and front I0, respectively, and on its transverse medial line zz.

Projecting from the upper end of the back II is a closure flap M and carried as an extension 35 or continuation of such fiap are the back and front portions 15 and 16, respectively, of a cardholder. The front portion I6 is shown provided with a large cut-out or opening H, which may be covered, if desired, with suitable transparent material, such as Cellophane, to afford a window. The back portion 15 has marginal portions 15a for overlapping adhesive securement to the front portion l6; and the front portion 16 preferably includes at its extremity a flap I8 to constitute a ledge on which a card inserted into the cardholder may rest. The boundary or joint between the back portion I5 and the front portion 16 may be defined by a line of score c-c, and lines of score are also shown as defining the joints between the flap l8 and the front portion I6, between the flanges 15a and the back 15, and between the back l5 and the flap Hi. It is desirable, also, that the wallet fiap M be of a width at least about equal to that of the bottom and side wall portions of the wallet and that it contain a plurality of transverse lines of score, as indicated, 50- that it may freely flex down over the front portion of the wallet as the wallet is expanded or filled up with papers.

It is a simple matter to form up the filing device hereof from the precut and prescored one piece blank of Figure 1. Thus, the marginal portions Hla of the front wallet portion [0 are adhesively secured to the exteriors of the side wallet walls I 2 and the end tabs l3a of the wallet bottom l3 are bent upwardly and are adhesively secured to the interiors of the side wallet walls l2, as best appears in Figure 5. The tabs Hz: at the upper end portions of the side wallet walls l2 are bent downwardly over and are adhesively secured to the marginal or flanged portions [0c of the front wallet wall, as shown in Figure 6. The side walls and bottom of the resulting wallet tend to recede inwardly in V configuration, as seen in Figure 5, with their medial lines of score affording easy flexing regions and, accordingly, permitting the desired free movement of the front and back Wallet walls toward and away from each other. By bending the front cardholder portion IE down on its line of score cc and bringing the marginal portions |5a of the back cardholder portion [5 into overlapping adhesive securernent to the portion [6, as appears in Figures 2 and 4, the cardholder is formed up,

whereupon the flap portion l8 of the cardholder may be bent upwardly on its line of score and projected into the cardholder through the lower open end, as shown in Figure 3. When a card is inserted into the cardholder, its front face is visible through the opening or window l1 and its lower edge rests in the hook element or ledge afforded by the upturned flap portion 18.

It is to be observed that the cardholder of the filing device hereof illustrated in the drawing is of a width distinctly less than that of the wallet. Such a device is designed more particularly for filing the record to be kept under the Social Security Act, which record includes an identification card of smaller dimensions than the receipts or other papers to be kept. It is, of course, possible to vary the dimensions of the cardholder, but, in any event, the height of the cardholder should not be greater than that of the wallet so as to enable satisfactory filing of a succession of the devices hereof in upstanding position in a filing cabinet. I

The finished device hereof is intended to be filed in a cabinet with the cardholder brought down or falling to the dotted line position shown in Figure 3 and with the wallet capable of expanding as it is filled with papers sothat its front wall occupies, for instance, the dotted line position. A person looking through a filing cabinet containing a. multiplicity of the filing devices hereof lined up successively in back of one another can readily pick out the particular file or record being sought simply by raising the successive wallet closure flaps and the cardholders carried thereby until he sees the card identifying the particular file being sought, whereupon such file may be removed from the cabinet. There is hence no necessity for removing any of the other files from the cabinet or disturbing the records or cards of any other file.

I claim:

1. A combined expanding wallet and cardholder adapted for filing purposes consisting essentially of a precut and prescored one-piece fiberboard blank comprising front, back, side, and bottom wallet portions formed up into an expanding wallet whose side and bottom walls contain lines of score permitting free movement of the front and back wallet walls toward and away from each other, said blank additionally comprising a closure flap projecting from the top of said back walletwall and carrying as an extension thereof front and back cardholder portions formed up into .a card holder whose front wall is provided with an opening through which a card placed in said cardholder is visible when said flap and cardholder are brought up from closing position against the front wallet wall, said wallet closure flap being of a Width at least about equal to that of the side and bottom wallet walls and containing a plurality of transverse lines of score on which it may freely flex over the front portion of said wallet as said wallet is expanded or filled up with papers and said cardholder including an open end adjacent to said walletclosure flap and through which a card may be inserted into said cardholder and the front cardholder wall including a flap projected through said open end into said cardholder and affording a ledge on which a card inserted into said cardholder may rest.

23 A combined expanding wallet and cardholder adapted for filing purposes consisting essentially of a precut and prescored fiberboard structure comprising front, back, side, and bottom wallet portions formed up into an expanding wallet whose side and bottom walls contain lines of score permitting free movement of the front and back wallet walls toward and away from each other, said structure additionally comprising a closure flap projecting from the top of said back wallet wall and carrying as an extension thereof front and back cardholder portions formed up into a card holder whose front wall is provided with an opening through which a card placed in said cardholder is visible when said flap and cardholder are brought up from closing position against the front wallet Wall, said wallet closure flap being of a width at least about equal to that of the side and bottom wallet walls and said cardholder including an open end adjacent to said wallet closure flap and through which a card may be inserted into said cardholder and the front cardholder wall including a flap projected through said open end into said cardholder and affording a ledge on which a card inserted into said cardholder may rest.

MAURICE WINOKAR. 

